People who claimed during suspension of face-to-face checks told to return thousands of pounds, says CPAG
The Department for Work and Pensions has unlawfully told “significant” numbers of people who legitimately claimed universal credit at the start of the pandemic to repay money often totalling thousands of pounds, a charity has claimed.
The claimants were all given universal credit during the lockdown in March and April 2020 when face-to-face identity checks were suspended. Since then the DWP has carried out retrospective checks on those claims and asked individuals for ID evidence.